Freefall
by Cerulean Musings
Summary: After being uprooted and sent away to live with MJ and her family, Kami Benson looks forward to the upcoming junior class trip to Europe to bring the sense of normalcy that's eluded her. But then Spider-Man came along, elements became sentient, her aunt Maria decided to show up, and she begins to be stalked by a...pharaoh? Talk about an adrenaline rush.


_**Freefall**_

**by: Cerulean Musings**

**Summary** \- After being uprooted and sent away to live with MJ and her family, Kami Benson looks forward to the upcoming junior class trip to Europe to bring the sense of normalcy that's eluded her. But then Spider-Man came along, elements became sentient, her aunt Maria decided to show up, and she begins to be stalked by a...pharaoh? Kami's used to living her life on the edge, but this takes the cake. Talk about an adrenaline rush. [Peter/MJ] [Ned/OC]

**Note:** Starts right before Spider-Man; Far From Home so if you haven't seen it yet, there will eventually be spoilers.

* * *

**ONE**

The deafening _crack_ of the shattering rockface beneath her gloved grip sent a chord of fear through Kami Benson. Her heart stuttered in chest and her stomach twisted in a painful knot, forcing sour bile to shoot up her throat. She swallowed, wincing at the burn which brought a rush of tears to her eyes. With every heaving breath, her stomach pressed against the jagged rocks; the tips poking and prodding at her stomach and ribs.

Her legs quaked, straining to keep her up against the wall of rock that she'd begun climbing only ten minutes ago. Her harness pressed against her pelvis and sweat dripped down her cheeks and into the corners of her mouth. She darted her tongue out, catching the salty drops on the tip of her tongue as her mind screamed _Don't let go, don't let go, don't let go!_

"C'mon, Kami, c'mon," she muttered to herself, repositioning her grip. "Just gotta get up there. You can do it!"

Kami blew out a breath; dust skittered out in all directions. She sucked a few in, causing her body to clench in a series of coughs. She gripped the rockface harder; little tremors ran up and down her arms, giving the quaking in her legs a run for their money. She had to move.

Gathering her wits, she lifted one foot from a hold beneath her and hiked it up higher, testing the sturdiness before resting her weight on it. Gritting her teeth, she'd just removed her hold from the wall, reaching above her head, when another loud _crack_ burst out the wall. She grabbed on again, holding steady as a giant quake beneath her rumbled.

A jagged, lightning bolt-like shape burst into the rock around her. Kami's eyes widened, her breath rushed out of her all at once and her heart _thump thump thumped_ in her chest. Warning bells went off in her head and her muscles screamed for her to _go, go, go!_

With a grunt, she pulled down on the rock wall, lifting herself up in one burst to latch onto a space above her. She grabbed onto the ledge with both hands, contracted her muscles, pulled down, and burst forward again. The crack in the rock shot up next to her, racing her, rushing to be the winner. Not on her watch. Kami's been climbing since she scaled her crib at sixteen months. And she hadn't stopped sine. She had this.

Her breaths burst out of her in pants as she fell into a rhythm: reach, pull, launch. Reach, pull, launch. The crack snaked its way up next to her, trembles following, hoping to knock her off. But she held on, almost glued to the side of the rocks. The summit loomed ahead of her. Blue sky stretched out above and the branches of trees above swayed, a silent crowd waving her into the finish. She was almost there, she could do it!

One more reach…and she gasped. The crack surged forward, splintering off in different directions, taking curves and sharp turns until they all reached together at one point and melded together. Forming a face. A skull. Its mouth cracked open into a large, dusty, cavernous grin. The crack split wider and the loudest rumbled she'd ever heard shot out of its depths. The ground beneath hear bucked and rolled in waves and, with one hard push, her rope snapped and, weightless, she fell.

Down, down, down her body plummeted through the air. Wind rushed in her ears, tugged at her clothes, as the summit grew smaller and smaller and the ground rushed up at her. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes and she swallowed the lump that had risen in her throat. The single thought that crossed through her mind before she slammed into the ground with a sickening crunch was _Mom_.

* * *

With a shuttered gasp, Kami's eyes flew open and the darkness of her bedroom settled in around her. Heat curled around her neck, constricting like a boa. She took a few more deep breaths and sat up; her heavy blanket slipped down into her lap and the cool air caressed her warmed skin. She ran the back of her hand against her sweaty forehead, smearing the clinging substance aside. Her curls lay matted against the side of her head, the rest piled atop due to her tossing and turning. But, ignoring the bedhead she knew she'd have to painstakingly detangle in the morning, she relaxed.

She was in bed, she was comfortable, she was safe.

She punched her pillow a few times, easing out the lumps that had collected to one side. The colors had faded, and it was a few years away from falling apart at the seams, but she'd had it since she was a little girl. It went everywhere with her, which was a lot of places. No matter whether she and her father were stationed in Africa, Germany, Australia, or the UK the pillow always went with her.

Until The Snap.

She'd been up on the roof, glancing up at the stars through her telescope while charting its position as she always did when it happened. Her hands tingled; she thought they had fallen asleep. But then she got a painful twist in her stomach, that spread to a strange burning sensation in her chest. Her breaths shortened and goosebumps erupted over her skin. As she struggled to swallow, she held her hands up in front of her face where they disintegrated by the second. She barely turned her head, uttering a weak and wheezy "_Daddy!_" when colors faded, sound muted, and her heart stopped.

And she blinked.

And she was back; lying on the dilapidated roof, the slick tiles seeping cold water into the thin shirt she wore to bed. Her telescope was gone, the grass down below was longer than she remembered, the layer of dust on the inside banister left her fingerprints behind, gray hairs dotted her father's goatee and lines etched into the sides of his wide, surprised eyes.

He held onto her, squeezing her until her bones creaked but she didn't complain. She buried her face into his chest, taking in the scent of his cologne mixing in with the faint traces of fabric softener and cigarette smoke. And when she went to bed that night, for the first time in years, he sat by her bedside and watched her sleep. Not that he'd admit it. But as she tossed and turned, pretending to merely be rolling over in her sleep, she spied him through her squinted eyes. He sat in her desk chair, legs stretched, hands folded on his stomach, watching her, a tender and fearful expression nestled in his eyes.

They both didn't get much sleep that night.

Kami lay back against her pillow, pushing a slow breath through her nose and stared at the glowing stars on her ceiling. Her eyes traced the constellations her father painstakingly painted down to the exact formations as she tried to slow her breath and slow her mind. It was just a dream. She didn't suffer a fall and rocks suddenly becoming sentient wasn't a possibility.

Her eyelids had barely fluttered shut when her door burst open. It hit the opposite wall so hard that the doorknob became lodged within in the wall, making it come to a stop altogether. Once more, Kami found herself bolting upright, this time to see her father, Kenny Benson, darting into the room. Blue eyes wide and wild, hair mussed and mumbling something incoherent. A far cry from the put together, pragmatic, and reserved nature.

"Dad?" Kami rubbed at her eyes, making sure he was really there. Making sure she wasn't still stuck in a dream. "Dad, what's wrong?"

"We need to leave," he replied. He darted to her dresser and began to yank out drawers. He grabbed a few shirts and threw them onto the floor. The pile grew by the second as he went to the next drawer and the next.

A rock settled in her stomach as his words registered in her mind. A moment later she sighed, shoulders slumping forward. She'd been through this before. She knew what this meant. He was being put on another assignment. "We're moving again?" she asked. Her eyes trailed over to her desk, where a large world scratch-off map sat pinned over her desk. A few scratched spaces stared back at her and her eyes roamed the world. Where would they be going next?

"No, we're leaving," he replied. His tone, so gruff, made her eyebrows furrow together. He'd never taken that tone with her before. Not even when she snuck into his office as a child and climbed up his file cabinet, successfully getting into the one locked drawer. "Now."

"What?" Kami shook her head. "We're leaving…now?" she repeated.

"Yes, Kams, _now!_ Do you have your passport?"

"Mhm. It's on my desk." She pointed. Kenny followed her finger and rushed to her desk, grabbing her passport off the top of it. He knocked over a picture frame; it's face smacked against the mahogany wood of the desk surface. "Dad, why are we—"

"I don't have time to explain. You just…you gotta get up, okay? Get up and get your stuff. I gotta get you to the airport."

Kami swung her legs over the side of her bed and watched him flutter form one side of the room to the other, pulling at his hair and muttering along the way. It wasn't until he yanked her suitcase out of the closet that the sleep fog lifted from her mind and his words settled in. Wait, _what!?_

"Get _me_ to the airport?" she repeated.

"Yeah, I…" he stopped and looked at her. His eyes, weary and dull, trained on her face. "Sorry, kiddo, you're going alone. I can't go with you."

"What do you mean? Dad! I just…" _I just got back_ she wanted to say. _I haven't had time._ She'd been brought back in The Blip only…six months ago? Seven? And in that time her father had barely been there. Sure, there were a few weeks that he hustled around the house, fixing leaking pipes and replacing planks on the front porch and working on puzzles on the back porch. But those moments tended to be cut short when his work phone rang; it rang a lot and he was always expected to answer the call, get his belongings together, and leave within the hour.

It wasn't always bad; when she was younger her Aunt Maria—well, her godmother—would come and stay with her, get her to the school of whatever country they were stationed in at the time, and keep her on her routine. But it was when she became a teenager and left alone more often that she turned to entertaining herself, studying the stars, mapping their positions, and getting her YouTube channel started. It kept her attention but, well, it wasn't the same.

She licked her dry lips and watched her father, still rooted to her bed. Her chest tightened. "Where are you going?"

"Don't worry about me, Kams. I have to get you out. Come on, get up."

"But Dad—"

"Kamala!" Kenny whipped around, grabbed her shoulders, and gave her a shake. "We need. To leave. _Now_. Do you understand?" He swallowed; she watched as his adam's apple bobbed. "Something…something happened. Okay? We're not safe here."

Kami's eyes widened and her lips parted. She tried to say something, anything, but no sound came out. Kenny's stare, so intense, so fearful, froze her vocal chords. She'd never seen him so afraid in her entire life. What was going on?

"Dad—"

"I'm sending you back to America, okay? There's a family that's going to take you…I know them. They're good people. They're going to take you for a while, okay? Until all this gets sorted out." He placed a hand atop of her hair, caressing the wayward strands. "It won't be for long. Just until…until everything settles down."

"But what about you?" she managed in a shaky whisper. "Dad? What about you? Where are you going?"

"It's best I don't tell you. If they ever find you—"

"They _who?_"

Kenny let go of her shoulders. He nearly tripped on the hem of his pajamas as he backed away. He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck and turned back to her desk, pausing at the turned picture. "Do you still have that necklace I gave you?"

Eyebrows colliding at the topic change, Kami nodded and then vocally confirmed her answer. She barely heard it over the slamming of her heart against her chest. She managed to get up, stumbling a few shaky steps forward when Kenny turned back around, his fist clutching a gold chain where a blood-red colored looking beetle pendant hung off the end. She recognized it as the souvenir he got her from Egypt three years ago, on her thirteenth birthday.

"Keep this with you, okay? No matter what, Kams. You have to keep this with you at all times." He took her hand, turned it over, and dropped the beetle necklace into her hand. The gold chain coiled up like a snake; the beetle was cool to the touch. "Can you do that?"

"Yeah." Kami nodded her head rapidly. "Yeah, I can. Dad…where am I going?"

"New York. You'll be safe there. You're going to stay with the Joneses. They have a girl your age. She goes to Midtown High. That's where you'll be attending in the fall."

"The fall? How long will I be there?"

"…As long as it takes."

Kami curled her hands around the beetle; its legs poked into her fingers. "What about you? Where are you going?"

"It's…it's best if I don't tell you."

"But what if something happens?"

"I'll be okay. Everything…everything will be okay. I promise." He laid his hands on her shoulders once more. Then he cupped her cheeks, brushing his rough calloused hands against her cheek bones, wiping away the tears that slipped down her cheeks. She spotted the gun that was tucked into the waistband of his pajama pants. Her lips pressed together, quelling the sobs that wanted to burst out of her chest. But she swallowed them down, she had to stay strong. For her dad's sake. So she steadied her jaw and hardened her heart. It had always made moving easier. "I'll come back for you, Kams. Just know that…know that I…that I…"

"I know." Kami allowed a watery smile to shine through. She sucked in a breath, squeezed her tears out of her eyes, and stiffened her jaw. "I know, Dad."

He nodded. He moved as if to let her go, hesitated, and then leaned back to press a kiss to her forehead. Her eyes closed as his touch, savoring the moment, etching it into her memory. She held onto it as she packed her bag, threw on some clothes, grabbed the photo off her desk, and jumped in the car.

The rest of the night passed in snapshots, scenes passing by every time she blinked. Blink. Their house grew smaller in the distance. Blink. They rushed down the freeway. Blink. The car pulled up at the airport. Blink. Aunt Maria gave her her flight information and escorted her through security. Blink. The airplane pulled away from the terminal.

Resting her head against the oval window, Kami stared into the surrounding darkness as the plane carried her away from her father, carried her away from her home, and headed towards America. To her new home. To her new family. To her new normal. For who knows how long. And as they lifted up into the sky, Kami held onto the little piece of comfort that her father would be looking up at the same moon no matter how far apart they were.

Sighing, Kami got comfortable in her seat, ready to take on the long flight that was taking her to the Jones family. They had a girl her age. That could be fun. Kami always wanted a sister. Who knew what sort of adventures they could go on.

* * *

**Hello there! This is my first foray into the marvel fandom so I'm a little scared but here I am! I've been thinking of this idea for a while and I just saw Spider-Man Far From Home yesterday and it gave me enough motivation to finish this and post it before I got too scared. I hope you all like Kami. If you need to picture her, I'm using Taylor Russell from Escape Room and Lost In Space as her "actress". Please let me know what you think!**


End file.
